


Noods' Adventures : Scars Edition

by PaleNoFace



Series: Smeet Army AU [14]
Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Medical Procedures, Mental Health Issues, Older Dib (Invader Zim), Organ Transplantation, Other, POV Noods, Parent Dib (Invader Zim), Parent Zim (Invader Zim), Protective Zim (Invader Zim), References to Illness, Scars, Tall Zim (Invader Zim), but like she doesn't know the specifics of it, noods is not a healthy baby, she's still very upbeat about it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 18:35:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28817898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaleNoFace/pseuds/PaleNoFace
Summary: Noods likes funny textures. Luckily for her, she has some at hand at all times.
Relationships: Dib (Invader Zim) & Original Character(s), Dib/Zim (Invader Zim), Zim (Invader Zim) & Original Character(s)
Series: Smeet Army AU [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1658659
Comments: 8
Kudos: 23





	Noods' Adventures : Scars Edition

**Author's Note:**

> Short and soft- as expected for Noods content. Happens some time after "To Whom It WILL Concern".
> 
> As usual, CW for mentioned mental illness, because, hey, Dib and Zim are far from okay, and also mentions of injuries and medical procedures. Additionally, Noods mentions vomiting a few times, so heads up for that.

Noods likes funny textures.

  
She likes the way the rough blanket on the couch feels on her arms. She likes the cold-and-hard of the vents when she goes to hide. She likes the slide of the greasy foil wrap around her food. She likes the way all the keyboards are so used to the bone the keys are practically smooth under her hands.

And she likes the weird pattern on her skin, too.

It's pale, and mostly flat, but there are bumps and hard parts that feel different under her finger pads. It goes like that one letter in the alphabet, the one that's like a stick figure with its arms in the air. It goes from one shoulder to the dip under her ribs, then back up the other shoulder, and then from the dip it goes straight down her tummy. 

And it wasn't always there, Noods knows that. She's been very sick at some point, and then she went to sleep, and when she woke up everything was bad and wrong and Father was helping her up and there was pink blood on his sleeves and white bandages around her whole middle part and, and...

She hasn't been sick since. Which is nice, all things considered, because it's kinda sad that sometimes her meals refuse to stay where they're meant to be, which is _inside_ her body, not on the ground in a puddle of wet goo. It's annoying, but now it doesn't happen anymore, and she's been fine.

Plus, she has this cool thing on her chest and tummy now. One long green line that forks into two. And it's interesting to touch.

Father has been less than pleased when she ripped the funny little bits of thread that were sticking out of it, at the beginning. Said something about healing, and how it'll take longer if she pokes at it. So Noods, halfheartedly, has not poked and pulled at it until Mother asked if she wanted to help him get them out. Because then it was okay to pull out the weird little strings, and...

She doesn't have the strings anymore, obviously, and the long line has long since healed all the way. And it's flat, mostly, feels like the rest of her skin, but there are parts that are rough. Dry, kind of. They make funny little mounts that she wants to pick at, but Father said to leave it alone, and so she does.

She's a good girl who knows better than disobey him about "healthy stuff".

And anyway, Father knows best. He is covered in those little lines.

There's a big one on the flappy bit of skin where his eye was supposed to be but isn't there anymore. Mother says it's from that one time he was shot in the head, and Noods agrees that not having an eye and gaining just a little line is not so bad for getting shot in the head.

(Not that she knows how it feels. She just assumes it must feel miserable.)

There's another big one above his left (right ? no, on the side of the hand she doesn't draw with, it's _left_ ) hip that is big and bumpy and looks like there's a piece of him that's missing, and it pulls and makes him do weird faces when it's wet outside.

And there are lines all around his right (ri-...yes, right) knee from that one time he got the little bone in there ripped out. She doesn't know who did that to him, and he won't tell, but sometimes to make her laugh he knocks on it and it makes a weird metallic sound and...

And...

There is the little one on his forehead, just where his hair starts, from fighting off a rat. A person ? A rat person. She doesn't like rats, but the rat is dead and Father is fine and so she doesn't care because now he has a little line and a funny story to tell.

There's one on his right thumb, because he didn't wear gloves while repairing the Voot.

There's the one on the back of his arm from the time GIR accidentally tripped him up and he shattered a bone on the corner of a table and Mother had to cut him open to put everything back into place.

There are the neat little ones on the inside of his wrists. They're thin and aligned, and Noods thinks they're pretty. Father disagrees, but he lets her poke at them anyway.

There's the one under his left ear that loops a little under his jaw, and it's mostly invisible but Noods knows it's there because she's the one who caused it the first time she held a pen and it went terribly wrong. (She stills feels a little guilty about that.)

There's the one behind his head because they had to open it up to fight whoever was in there, and she didn't even know there was supposed to be stuff in the head, let alone entire people, that was for sure a revelation, and then they lasered it back all closed up tight and snug so nothing bad would come out.

(There is still bad stuff in Father's head, she knows it. She doesn't think it can hurt anyone, but sometimes when she looks very closely in his eye she sees there is something agitated behind. But Father has it under control. He says he does. And why would Noods ever doubt his word ?)

(Sometimes she wonders if it's the same thing haunting Mother from the inside. But the bad things hurt Mother a lot, and he never speaks about it. Some days, he doesn't speak at all. Noods hates the head-and-heart ghosts. Once she's big and strong she's going to fight them all and Mother and Father will finally be fine all the time.)

Mother, Artie and Gus don't have lines or patches of weird skin. She thinks it has to be because of the PAKs. It makes sense, because neither her nor Father have them, and they're the only one with the pale lines--

SCARS ! They're scars. Mother told her that's what it's called. She forgot, but it's fine because now she knows.

Anyway. Out of them all, only her and father get scars. GIR can't, but he is all bumpy and sticky and sometimes his wires do something Not Right, but he doesn't have skin so he can't get scars like she does.

And Mother has a PAK. And sometimes he comes back home looking all terrible, like that one time his back was all burned because something was wrong with his PAK and he had to spend so many days in the medbay because it was hurting, and, and...

And Mother has a PAK, and he gets hurt a lot, but there isn't any proof left behind once he's healed. There is no mark to remind him of the stories of how he got them, and Mother's memory is already terrible, so not being reminded of stories is even worse.

Gus and Artie, they're babies. They don't get hurt as often.

Except that one time Gus sliced one of his fingers right off, and wailed for hours about it, but then his finger grew back and Noods still can't tell the difference.

And that one time Artie slipped in a puddle and it hurt him all over and Father had to rush him inside and they thought there would be consequences, but then Artie was fine and he wasn't allowed out when it rained anymore, and that was that.

(Noods doesn't like to go out when it rains anyway, because she's not careful enough to avoid being splashed and then it would hurt her a lot worse and her skin would start to smoke and blister. Artie is so weird.)

But Gus and Artie never go on hunts with Father, and there's no risk of getting badly hurt. And Mother doesn't bring them in space with him either, not yet, not as long as they don't "have proper smeet accommodations in there", whatever that means.

So Mother has no scars, and forgets he can get hurt, and Father has so many scars, and he still gets hurt like it doesn't matter, and Gus and Artie don't get hurt despite not getting scar either.

And Noods, well, she only gets scars from things out of her control anyway. So it's not like she learns anything from it either. She looks like the Maximum Power Ninja, tough, and that's _very cool_. So yeah.

She has a big scar from that one time she got very very sick and started puking bits of her own insides. And she has to go to the bathroom all the time now, because things actually come out. But at least she's no longer sick, and her parents aren't looking at her with big haunted eyes anymore.

She'll take it any day.

**Author's Note:**

> Pls leave kudos and comments ! It feeds my determination !


End file.
